This week we had a really fun conversation with Ric Dragon (Author of Social Marketology, Speaker, Artist, CEO and Co-Founder of Dragon Search) who just might have the coolest name in all of social media if not the world.

And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

Our episode began with our weekly news item, which was how the NYPD completely botched their use of a hashtag to get New York City residents engaged with local police officers. It predictably blew up in their collective faces, humiliating the NYPD with images of officer beating Occupy Wall Street protesters and random acts of violence perpetrated by the force.

Ric wisely noted that they could have taken that opportunity to engage with their citizens, made fun of themselves a little and taken other steps to mitigate the damage. However it seems that they are just not that social media savvy in the department so they wasted yet another opportunity to help themselves.

Also discussed in this episode: The crazy business potential of your “weak ties” on Twitter. Listen to hear more…

Later Ric described the five key elements to social media success, which are also on his DragonSearch website:

Brand Maintenance: Brand maintenance in social media means that the organization has all of the typical social media accounts and is posting and responding to mentions of their name. An organization that is fundamentally using social for customer service is using the brand maintenance approach.

Community: Community can be about building or nurturing community of all types, including brand ambassadors, people who love your brand, or people who share your passion points. You can be at the center or the periphery of a community, and be a passive or active member.

Influencer: The influencer approach is about identifying relevant influencers, closely monitoring their social media activities, and engaging with them as appropriate. It can be about building relationships, too, much in the same way that traditional PR was often based on building relationships with media.

Thought Leadership/Reputation: Thought leadership includes proactive and reactive reputation management work in which you are endeavoring to place the brand favorably as having credibility or expertise in your arena. Content marketing typically falls into this bucket.

Big Splash: Big Splash approaches are creative programs that are usually intended to get a lot of attention. These include contests, sweepstakes, and viral videos. While these tactics don’t usually help to foster community or influence, they can be great for awareness and the creation of connections.

Finally we wrapped up with the Tip of the Week which involved aiming for the head, not the heart, when using social media. Most people don’t buy from what they know, but rather what they feel. To this point Ric indicated that no Red Bull ads feature how horrible their product tastes, but rather their ads surround the feelings they are trying to evoke around Red Bull.

Ric Dragon

Ric Dragon is the author of Social Marketology and the DragonSearch Online Marketing Manual, both published by Mc-Graw Hill. He is the CEO and co-founder of DragonSearch, with more than 20 years of extensive experience in graphic design, information architecture, web development and digital marketing. As an artist, Ric has been shown in countless group and solo shows. He is a regular guest columnist for Marketing Land, and Social Media Monthly, and a speaker at many marketing and business conferences.

This week we welcome Amber Osborne, CMO of Meshfire! …And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

Amber Osborne – CMO of Meshfire

This week on Social Media Unscrambled we had an excellent conversation about the power and potential of using Meshfire to manage Twitter more effectively with CMO Amber Osborne.

First we started the episode with our the news item: Twitter is changing its layout of profiles by making the “cover” picture bigger, etc. Amber agreed with David that the new layout will be less confusing and actually look more like Facebook.

Then we really dug into how Meshfire can help you and your brand manage multiple Twitter profiles simultaneously. Meshfire also has super-efficient functionality for team collaboration (CollaboTwation? Twitoration?) by allowing the integration of numerous profiles into their platform and distributing work among team members.

Amber elucidated on why she thinks Twitter is such an incredibly powerful platform and explained how, before joining Meshfire, she previously helped several companies amp up their social media presence and experience significant business growth. And of course we had to address the fact that she had blue hair for a couple years. …cool 😉

We also reminisced about the olden days of social media — a whopping six years ago — and how Amber and David got onto social media in the first place. It was a walk down memory lane… Chris and Amber also reflected on how they met at New Media Expo which all started with a strange tweet from none other than our good friend Dino Dogan.

Finally we shared the Tip of the Week: David found an article suggesting that parents should talk to their kids about the power and potential of social media to hurt them in the long-run with regards to their reputation, employment opportunities, etc. We posted that link on our Facebook page!

Amber Osborne, a.k.a @MissDestructo

…is the Chief Marketing Officer at Meshfire in Seattle and former Vice President at Head of Lettuce Media in Tampa, Florida. An award-winning Social Media strategist with years of consistently delivering pioneering digital media solutions. Diverse client exposure ranging from small start-ups to internationally-known brands. Specializing in community management, brand development and creating engaging, unforgettable online personalities behind social media accounts such as Bruce’s Yams and social media promotion for events like Foursquare Day, the Audi Roadtrip and the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Miss Destructo has been featured in Forbes, Time, Huffington Post, Mashable, Puget Sound Business Journal, St. Pete Times, MSNBC, ABCnews, LA Weekly, CNN Headline News, Search Engine Journal andFast Company Online. Also recently, a panelist at CES, SXSW 2011, a keynote panelist at IStrategy Amsterdam and voted Creative Loafing’s Best of The Bay 2010 Best Tampa Twitter Personality. Also featured as one of the Top CMO’s On Twitter by Social Media Marketing Magazine.

Thanks Amber!!!

*and THANKS to all our listeners for tweeting along LIVE with hashtag #unscrambled!

And Thanks again to our sponsor, TribeBoost! (helping you grow your Twitter audience….and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

Today we had a conversation about being on the cutting-edge of business, both online and off. …And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

And HUGE appreciation for all our previous guests – thanks for sharing your genius! (Browse them on our site)

First we started with the #CancelColbert category that went viral after Colbert tweeted information that was taken completely out of context. To be clear, if you hadn’t listened to the show the Tweet was in fact quite racist; but in context he was only making fun of another racist — or at least insensitive — situation regarding the Washington Redskins.

Dino Dogan – Founder of Triberr

Later Dino Dogan from Triberr called in — as usual! — to talk about the app he created called the Dino Dogan app (available for iOS). David still is having trouble understanding why someone should build their own app when they can just build a clean, responsive design website instead. Dino argues that your own app is the ideal way to consolidate ALL your websites, pages and media in one convenient place plus have it available on any device; why make your fans search all over the web?

*Learn how to create your own app by attending Dino’s upcoming webinar –> more info at www.amazebrain.com. *Use coupon code chris30 to get 30% OFF!!!

Dino also, by way of an incredibly fun and accurate slot machine analogy, said that our show “transcends social media.” (!)

Then we discussed the importance of messaging. Chris said that his service (of helping business produce their own podcast show) is well received but generally too ahead-of-its-time for most people invest in. Messaging is important, but so is reaching the correct target market as well as taking into consideration the old-media business paradigm…….at which point we had another long chat about what it takes to message correctly both on and offline.

Ultimately it was yet another delightful disaster of an episode where we all shared thoughts, experiences and strategies to better sell our services both online and off, finishing with a tip of the week: Have a good message before getting on social media 😉

Reminder: To tweet and follow along to the LIVE show using the #unscrambled hashtag, simply go to our Live Broadcast page where you can monitor the feed of all the live comments and questions, as well as tweet along by clicking “Tweet” at the bottom left of the feed 😉

And Thanks again to our sponsor, TribeBoost! (helping you grow your Twitter audience….and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

This week discussed many things, including the awesomest app, Stitcher! …And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

Noah Shanok, CEO & Co-Founder of Stitcher

Our guest was fantastic: The Co-Founder of Stitcher, Noah Shanok! Chris met him at — wait for it! — New Media Expo in Las Vegas. Well they didn’t actually meet there; Chris attended Noah’s keynote session and later asked him to be on the show. For some unknown reason he said yes.

We began today’s show with a news item about how LinkedIn is canceling their company pages. As a consultant, David said he has always avoided training clients on LinkedIn Company pages because it was outside the scope of LinkedIn which is a professionals network, not a business network. Still, LinkedIn handled this quite poorly, removing people’s recommendations for the companies they like. Noah generally agreed with David but added that he has great sympathy for LinkedIn who, as a business, has to roll out new features, see how they go, and then pull them back if they don’t work as planned.

Then we got in-depth about Stitcher, how it came about and what it does. And how handy it is – the Stitcher app is available on all smartphones, tablets and computers for Free. It provided personalized, on-demand, and always-current audio content to listeners everywhere, including internet radio and podcasts. Seriously, install the app and have fun browsing and listening 🙂

Noah said he conceived and gave birth to Stitcher because, after launching his own podcast, he realized there was no really easy or efficient way to share it with others – including his own mother. Thus Stitcher was created!

He also talked about integrating Stitcher into cars, which is already a reality – and it’s a game changer! Ever hear of Ford, GM, BMW, Mercedes, Mazda, or Volvo? Yeah. Awesome. Getting into cars was part of Stitcher’s plan from the beginning although it took longer than Noah originally thought it would. Being in the dashboards of cars has been the big edge for mainstream radio……until now 😉 Oh the times, they are a-changin’

We also learned he mentors at-risk youth in the San Francisco area. This has been very rewarding for Noah, helping people who need guidance in various areas of their lives. David (jokingly) offered to be one of his mentees – which was met with laughter. We interpreted that as “no.”

Additionally, Noah is an auto enthusiast and his car of choice would be a Shelby Cobra from around 1960, which apparently idles at a very loud level.

Later we got to the Tip of the Week: On Facebook, look in your messages tab and see the two inboxes: “Inbox” and “Other.” The Other one is not often used and you don’t even get notified if you get a message there. Noah wasn’t aware of his Other box, so he checked during the show at which point he realized people were indeed messaging him there! Check your Other box and see what messages you may have missed!

As a kind of bonus, Noah also shared some insights into what’s been key for his success so far: Assembling the right team of people. He also emphasized that hazing as a great way to hire people (joking), including creating a henna tattoo company logo on applicant’s foreheads rather than permanent ones. (joking, obviously…)

We then adjourned and agreed that this was an excellent, informative and fun episode. Thanks again Noah for joining us!!!

Noah Shanok

…is furthering the movement to bring personalized, on-demand, quality, and always-current audio content to listeners everywhere. He was the founding VP of Sales for StubHub, an online ticket marketplace that was sold to eBay in January 2007. Noah also worked as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and as a fixed-income trader at JP Morgan Chase & Co. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from Skidmore College. In his spare time, Noah enjoys youth mentoring, mountain biking, skiing, golf (even though he is terrible!) and things that go fast.

*Positive vibes to all our listeners for tweeting along LIVE with hashtag #unscrambled!

And Thanks again to our sponsor, TribeBoost! (helping you grow your Twitter audience….and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

This week we, Chris Curran and David Deutsch, brought our unique take on the social media world and hopefully helped to, well, unscramble the social media world. …And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉 We’re using it for the show’s Twitter account, too.

Can Cecilie Korsttolerate us the way previous guests could? We were about to find out. As a side note, Chris met Cecilie at New Media Expo, as usual, and she was a great guest overall. She’s a Digital Media Consultant, podcast host of The Trailer Talks, and Co-Founder of Chapelure Media!

Before we got into the news item, we got a quick call from serial podcrasher Dino Dogan from Triberr. Dino mentioned that he just developed his own personal mobile app, at which point an extended conversation took place where we tried to determine what an app is, how it differs from a website and why everyone (almost) should have one for themselves. (www.amazebrain.com is the place to learn how to develop your own app.)

Finally, 11 minutes after the show started we talked about the News Item, how 31% of Christians will give up social media for lent. We then discussed what Lent actually is. The conversation ended before we started a religious war.

We decided to postpone this conversation but then Dino called again to talk about the need for an app and answer some more of our questions. We agreed to cover this topic in depth on a later episode so today we could focus on Cecilie’s message – the importance of creativity and telling your own story online.

Creativity and storytelling can, according to Cecilie, help people “get out of their own way” and live the creative lives they were always meant to. This is a tremendously powerful concept; creatives can, if they choose to, unshackle themselves from middle management and sterile corporate cubicles and live the lives they were meant to live by telling their authentic stories to the world. Her podcast, The Trailer Talks, started because Cecilie and her friend wanted to live an authentic and creative life. So now they have guests come to their 1970’s camper trailer to join them on their show.

Cecilie’s consulting practice, Chapelure Media, co-founded with her business partner Kathleen Buczko, starts by asking the question “What do you want to be?” And only later addresses “What are the best channels to get your message out there?”

What is her bottom line to living a creative life? Start now! So what if you mess up – just go for it and live the life you were supposed to live!

Finally we discussed our Tip of the Week: Jay Baer says that “Content is your Fire; Social Media is the Gasoline.” We then went back and forth on what that means and if the analogy is backward. So we ended the show in lots of chaos as David totally messed up the analogy. But not really…

Thanks Cecilie!!!

Cecilie Korst

…is a content creator and host of a podcast set in a 1970’s camper trailer, aptly named “The Trailer Talks” where she interviews people who are living creative lives. In 2013, she retired from the Air Force after serving over 21 years as a Civil Engineer and Cyber Operations Officer. Along with her business partner, Kathleen Buczko, Cecilie is the Co-Founder of Chapelure Media, a digital media consulting company set to launch in June 2014. Cecilie also has experience in Corporate Communications, working with the Aerospace Corporation and military sales at Hilti. A creative person herself, (and a glutton for punishing academic schedules), she has a degree in Landscape Architecture from Ball State University and is currently back in school at the Art Institute of California studying web design and interactive media. Obviously, sleep is not one of her top priorities. Catch up with Cecilie via LinkdIN at www.linkedin.com/pub/cecilie-korst/27/355/199/

And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉 We’re using it for the show’s Twitter account, too.

Brief News Item: The company Birds Eye (Frozen foods, etc) is now selling “Mashtags,” which are potato shapes for the social media generation. They are shaped like hashtags, @ signs, smiley faces, hearts, stars, and more! I guess they’re like tater tots, or hash browns???

OK, so, Cynthia admits there are a lot of recipes on Pinterest – and that’s actually why she got started on there in the first place! It was a good resource for her mommy duties 😉

What exactly is Pinterest? A social public visual bookmarking tool. And Cynthia does a lot of Pinterest training – how to begin, how to optimize, participate and grow. Pinterest is a unique and wildly successful platform – as of the Fall of 2013 there were 70 million users worldwide! And it’s growing fast. Regarding referral traffic, it’s one of the major players online. It refers out more traffic than Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Reddit COMBINED!

Folks love finding inspiration online and then pinning the different elements to their Pinterest pinboards. Can we call that “Pinspiration?”

Have you heard that Pinterest is mostly for the ladies? But it’s not specifically FOR women. Women are just the early adopters. David initially saw pinterest as “window shopping,” and since men don’t like to window shop, that’s why he thinks women have been more attracted to Pinterest.

Some of the hot topics on Pinterest:

Fashion

Jewelry

Designing your dream house

Recipes

Animals

Electronics

Designing your bathroom remodel (For instance, you could have one board for fixtures, one for showers, tile, etc)

and a TON more!

BTW- David’s “little lady” is actually planning his 40th birthday party (in New York City) on a Pinterest board. She’s booking hotels, reserving places to eat, etc. Cynthia enlightened us that this would be a good opportunity to use Place Pins. Within Pinterest, drop a pin on a map, then when you are in the actual physical area you can pull up the map and see all the info, etc.

FACT: Although Pinterest is mostly visual, it’s not ALL visual – SoundCloud audio files can be pinned as well.

Via Twitter, Stephanie McCratic commented that Talking to boys about pinterest is so hard,but you guys are doing very well. Why thank you, Stephanie 😉

On Cynthia’s podcast, called Oh So Pinteresting, she interviews various people and delivers many useful tidbits and tips on how her listeners can use Pinterest more effectively. Cynthia also attends many social media conferences and speaks at them, too.

Is there a steep learning curve for Pinterest? No, it’s easy to jump on for personal use and pin things as you go. Have fun with it!

*Tip: Have a “Pin It” button on your website site so folks can easily pin your site onto their pinboards.

Cynthia says it’s pretty straight forward with regards to the best way to grow your pinterest audience:

Tell people what you’re pinning

Pin/share content that is helpful, useful

Re-pin and follow other people on Pinterest

Engage with other pinterest users

Would introducing conversation within Pinterest between users ruin the dynamic? The Pinterest creators have said that instead of becoming a traditional social network enabling more conversations, they see Pinterest as a search and discovery tool, like a visual human-curated Google, rather than a Facebook or Twitter.

Did you know there are “secret boards”???…..oooooo…. (not public)

Platforms that work really well together: Pinterest and Facebook. Direct your Facebook folks back to your Pinterest boards, …although in a way, Facebook and Pinterest have a kind of Love-Hate thing going. Google and Pinterest, however, really love each other 🙂

Pinterest for B2B marketing? The best approach is probably to try to appeal to the lifestyle of the people you’re trying to reach as it’s related to your business or your industry. Cynthia actually gets a bit more personal on her Pinterest account because she wants her audience to know a little more about her.

And let’s not forget – most businesses want to Pincrease their Pincome!!! Yeah….totally stretching…….. 🙂

Tip of the Week: Connect emotionally as well as visually. For example, Buzzfeed’s categories are OMG, WTF, etc. OMG is actually an emotion! Make your content emotionally compelling – make them laugh, make them cry – make it visual too because visual content is much more likely to be shared.

Thanks to Cynthia for so many Pinsights!

Cynthia Sanchez

Cynthia Sanchez is the founder and CEO of Oh So Pinteresting. She and her team work with businesses to create and implement Pinterest and social media solutions. Her clients range from companies in the sports apparel industry to Beverly Hills jewelers. She is a national speaker, writer and podcaster and has been featured in Social Media Examiner and Entrepreneur as a leading Pinterest expert.

And thanks to all our listeners for tweeting along LIVE with hashtag #unscrambled!